Women's Track Captures Fifth Straight Heps Title

After this weekend, they can complete the mantra “Still our house, still our championship.”

Yesterday the Red was unstoppable. It scored points in every event except two, and compiled an all-time Heptagonal record 164 points. It beat Princeton, who began the day two points ahead, by a 43 point margin. The team has now won five consecutive Indoor and Outdoor Heps titles since 2002 and three consecutive indoor titles.

“Really a great team win,” explained head coach Lou Duesing. “We had some really terrific and clutch performances. Across the board I thought people did a phenomenal job in competing, they did a phenomenal job in supporting one another, and I think they really had fun. It was a great team effort. I’m very proud of them.”

The first points scored by the Red came on Saturday in the weight throw. Junior Becky Tucker won the event with a toss of 59-4 1/4. The throw was more than 20 inches greater than the second place finisher and set a new Cornell record.

Critical points were scored in several other events. In the long jump, sophomore Karen Synder finished second with a jump of 19-5 1/2. While in pole vault, sophomore Katie Reagan cleared 11-9 3/4 taking fourth, and junior Katie Boyles placed third in the 5,000 meter.

Any doubts about the possibility of the Red not repeating were quickly erased yesterday.

In the 400-meter dash, the Red took first, second, third, and fifth. Junior Kari Steed won the event in 56.19 seconds, followed closely by freshman Cameron Washington, junior Shonda Brown, and sophomore Linda Trotter.

Senior Ib Stanley-Ikhilioju and Synder teamed up to take first and third respectively in the triple jump. Tucker continued her strong performance in the Heps coming in first in the shot put with a throw of 13.41 meters. Senior Hannah Garrity won the 200-meter dash and the 60-meter hurdles. The Red completed the pounding in the 4×400. The Red squad composed of Steed, Trotter, Washington, and Brown won in a time of 3:48.65

Duesing refused to draw any parallels to last year’s team.

“I don’t compare this to last year,” he said. “This one was particularly special because I think you keep winning and others keep putting more weight on your shoulders. This is a terrific group, they overcame a lot of adversity, we had a lot of good people who because of injury could not compete. I don’t want to compare because I want to enjoy this one and enjoy it with them.”

The championship was the result of a team effort and the whole team shared in the joy of winning.

“Its more of a team feeling,” Garrity said. “Because it’s just a huge group, and its so much fun that everyone comes as a team and as a school to support us. It’s amazing; it’s just so much energy. Winning is one thing, but the energy is in the meet when the team is cheering us on.”

Men

The men got off to quick start on Saturday. In front of a home crowd, junior Ryan Schmidt won the long jump, leaping a distance of 23-9 1/2 feet. He was followed by defending champion and teammate, senior Tyler Kaune, who turned in a 23-8 3/4 performance.

In the weight throw, senior Giles Longley Cook finished second to four-time defending champion Josh McCaughey of Princeton. Longley-Cook’s throw of 64-11 1/4 was the second best performance ever by a Cornellian in the Heps. Additionally, junior Mike Scarpa finished fifth with a toss of 55-5 1/2.

Red pole vaulters junior Adam Sansiveri and senior Travis Offner, finished first and second respectively in their event. Sansiveri matched his best performance of the season by clearing 16-0 3/4. This marked the third straight year the pole vault champion was from Cornell.

In all, the Red had 10 top-10 finishes on Saturday and amassed 54 points. It was in first place and led Princeton by 26 points. Yet in the final event of the day, the 3000-meter, the Red failed to score any points. The strength of the rest of the Ivies in mid-distance and distance events would haunt the Red on Sunday.

Yesterday started out on a promising note for the Red. In the 400, senior Mike Nanaszko finished second in a time of 49 seconds. Crowd favorite senior Rahim Wooley won the 60-meter dash. Senior Aldo Gonzalez finished second in the 1000 in a time of 2:26.39. Yet Cornell could not shake the Tigers, and with five events remaining the Red only led by two points. The turning point came in the relay events.

Princeton won the distance medley and the 4×800, and came in second in the 4×400. They secured 28 total points while the Red was only able to counter with 15 points. The final tally at the end of the day had Princeton beating Cornell, 151-149.

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Related

The softball team needed only three and half innings in the finals of the Dixie Classic at Virginia Beach last Saturday, beating Seton Hall 8-0 in a game ended by the eight run mercy rule. In a game in which Cornell’s offense was clicking on all cylinders, head coach Dick Blood felt it was solid defense that really made the difference for the team. Specifically, Blood pointed to the second inning as a key turning point for the Red. With the heart of Seton Hall’s lineup up to bat, Cornell made three spectacular defensive plays to shut down the Pirates. First, junior shortstop Lauren May gloved a potential single and made a dazzling throw to just barely beat the runner. Next, freshman catcher Sarah Ruben made a barehanded stab on a swinging bunt and nailed the batter at first. Finally, junior Melissa Heintz scooped up another slow rolling bunt and dived back to the first base bag to get the final out. “I felt that kind of defense set the tone that we were going to play sharply,” said Blood. Cornell’s defense was solid yet sparsely tested, thanks to a strong performance from sophomore Whitney Smith who recorded a two-hit shutout, baffling the Seton Hall hitters with her sharp change-up. Offensively, the Red received strong performances from a number of players. Senior Erin Sweeney went 1-2 on the day with an RBI, two runs and two walks. May went 2-2 with a home run and three RBI, capping off a tournament in which she went 10-14 with four home runs and 11 RBI. Heintz also turned in a strong performance, going 1-1 with a home run and two runs scored. Cornell went undefeated on the weekend, opening its 2004 season with a perfect 5-0 record. “There were a bunch of really solid programs from the East Coast there,” said Blood of the twelve team field. Cornell began play last Thursday with a 2-1 win over previously undefeated East Carolina University. Freshman Erin Murtha knocked in the game winning RBI with a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning. Cornell followed up with a 3-2 win against James Madison. Sophomore Kristen Landis was credited with the win, going four innings and giving up only four hits. Smith closed the game out allowing only one hit in three scoreless innings. “I was concerned that we may not get the bats rolling,” Blood said of the opening games. “We certainly didn’t hit much in the first two games, but then we started to open it up in the middle of the order.” On Friday, the Red faced Radford University’s Jennifer Bosley, a veteran pitcher who had racked up 21 strikeouts in 20 innings this season. Cornell cruised to a 7-2 win as the teams’ bats finally started to heat up, while senior Sarah Sterman tossed a solid complete game — allowing only two runs on five hits with no walks. The Red continued to cruise offensively in its second game Friday, easily defeating Norfolk State 11-3. The game was highlighted by Cornell’s first grand slam of the season, hit by Heintz in the sixth. “We still have a couple of our big guns who aren’t going yet,” Blood said. “But we played hard and played outstanding defense.” Cornell will be in action again in Philadelphia in two weeks for a pair of doubleheaders against Drexel (1-3) and Villanova (5-6). Archived article by Paul Testa

As Air Force One lifted off the tarmac at the Daytona Beach airport two weeks ago, race cars whirred on a tar track below and fans turned their heads to catch the looming behemoth as it breached the crest of the city’s speedway grandstands. The juxtaposition of our nation’s symbol of security and authority against 200,000 tank-topped, overweight mullets chilled me and forced the question in my head, “Is NASCAR taking over America?” A short while before the portent departure of the President’s bird, Bush addressed drivers in their cars and fans in the stands with the race’s preamble. “Gentlemen, start your engines,” he said into the microphone, and the contest began. 43 drivers; roughly 200,000 spectators; and an estimated 40 million television viewers heard the announcement. Undoubtedly the other 35 million NASCAR fans who missed the event for one reason or another caught Bush’s appearance on highlight reels later that night. Though brief, the Daytona pit-stop connected President Bush to the roughly 75 million Americans estimated to watch NASCAR routinely. Most of those people also tend to vote the Republican ticket. The publicity was fantastic. Bush and NASCAR loved it. “I’m thrilled to be here,” Bush drawled after the race. “This is more than an event, it’s a way of life for a lot of people.” NASCAR chairman Brian France added, “This is George Bush country here.” How horribly right they both are. If there’s one thing we don’t need right now, it’s the leader of the free world sitting around drinking beer and whistling Dixie as his head lolls elliptically to the motion of cars whirring around a track for a few hundred laps. But Dubya, it seems, has wised to his constituents and returned to his roots — Jeb, his brother, is governor of the state, after all — to woo what may become a key voter demographic in the upcoming presidential election. I don’t blame him. In fact, if Bush markets his politics to NASCAR fans half as well as Wal-Mart and Winston market their products, he should be a shoe-in. Brand names and logos cover every inch of NASCAR drivers’ suits and cars. Diehard fans clothe themselves from head-to-toe in their favorite team’s gear. Just think of the bumper sticker potential. “I don’t know why it has such mass appeal,” said Judson Van Allen, a junior in ILR and a Knoxville, Tennessee native. “It boggles the mind because it’s all left turns.” Van Allen, who has never been to a NASCAR race but does watch races occasionally, had only this to say about the sport’s growing popularity. “I think a lot of the popularity that goes along with it is the partying. My friend went to Taladega, and he said his diet consisted of beer and Cheerios for three days. I think it’s a big party for 100,000 people. You can fit a lot of people around a racetrack.” The same mentality which compels the hordes to this mindless sport apparently also compels some of their votes in the ballot box. Matt Thompson, a reporting and writing fellow at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies sat at the Daytona 500 when Bush addressed the crowd. Thompson wrote this in The American Prospect following a conversation he had with two other fans after the race. “Sean Bugg, 22, is rooting for Rusty Wallace in today’s race, and wears the jacket of Wallace’s sponsor, Miller Lite. Sean Clark, 23, wears a Budweiser jacket in support of driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. Miller Lite Sean has the stronger political beliefs of the two, mostly based, he says, on the beliefs of his Republican parents. Budweiser Sean, if he votes at all, will probably vote for Bush, too.” “‘That Bush,’ Miller Lite Sean says, ‘he’s going to keep shooting straight the whole time, basically. Bush is the one that went over there and handled shit, you know?'” “‘Yeah,’ chimes in Budweiser Sean, ‘Definitely handled that.'” And who can argue with them. I mean, Bush handled the WMD’s — he must have just done it secretly because we sure haven’t found any. He handled Osama Bin Laden, too, but we just never found out about it. And, if nothing else, Bush has sure handled the budget deficit: the bigger the better, right Cletus? Bush, Bush, he’s our man, if he can’t do it, NASCAR can. Despite embroiling the United States abroad and bewildering scores of Americans on the home front, Bush may be able to still find his way back to the Oval office if he can solidify the NASCAR demographic at the election. If he succeeds, so be it. But I hope not. And, though I certainly won’t blame NASCAR or its fans, wherever they hail from, I will question the character and future of a country whose vision is only as big as a windshield and whose perspective of the past four years is as skewed as the objects in the rear view mirror. Archived article by Everett Hullverson